My Turn

Before and After

Walking Walking Walking

I like going out for walks. Sometimes just for walks, sometimes walking and birding. I've gotten out a few times lately. I really do live in a beautiful place. Here's me on a few of my recent walks... and the scenery.

May 18 was Mt. Saint Helens Day. I went out birding and walking that day. I didn't see any volcanoes but I did have a nice view of a non-volcanic mountain.

And the river. Sigh. So pretty.

 

That evening, Jeremy, Nichole, and I got out for some relaxing birding.

One beautiful thing about living where we live is that every direction you look (North, South, East, West), in the distance there are hills and mountains. I love it.

My Kids Crack Me Up

When I mentioned to Jr. Jr. that May 16 was Sea Monkey Day, he told me, "Mom, you should make your bread have ears because... monkey sea, monkey dough."

I laughed so much.

He didn't know that I already had on my plans for the day to make monkey bread but since his comment I just had to do it this way:

He was quite pleased when he saw them.

It was also Barbecue Day so we had BBQ chicken pizza.

May 17 was Pizza Party Day so we ate pizza and played video games. 

 

That day was also Something Other Than a Backpack Day at the high school where students are encouraged to bring something... other than a backpack to put their school supplies for the day. This year students brought such things as laundry baskets, a toy shopping cart, sports bags, and one student carried a small canoe or some sort of boat thing.

Jr. took his guitar case with guitar inside. He was able to fit all his necessary stuff for the school day in the outside pocket. He didn't need much as he was going on a field trip to the Utah Symphony that day so could leave his guitar and case in the band room at the school.

Dinosaur Day 2024

You've heard me mention it before. Dinosaurs are everywhere.

On the kitchen table. In my bed. Where I'm stepping on the floor. In Jet's hands... obviously. In my bag... all the time. They're everywhere.

Sometimes I embrace the dinosaurs. Sometimes I forget about them even when it's Dinosaur Day, May 15, and I remember them almost last minute.

I should have worn my Jurassic Park shirt that day but I didn't think about it. Silly me. I did have other things on my mind. Jr.'s last orchestra concert was that evening for example. Earlier in the day, he had his guitar recital. Jeremy and Nichole went to that since Jet and I had an appointment. Most of us went to Jr.'s orchestra concert. My sister, her husband, and her son went to that concert as well... because I finally told her when his concert was. For the past few years I keep forgetting to tell her when the kids' concerts are even though they live in the same city. Sigh.

After the concert, they had some food and gave out paper plate awards. Jr. got the "Silent Ninja" award. He's quiet but does a good job.

Jet and I made sure to grab a couple of chocolate chip cookies since May 15 was also National Chocolate Chip Day.

After the concert, Jr. came home and immediately started playing his guitar again. I love that our kids are so musical.

Catch of the Day

That poor chicken.

Holidays

May 13 was Crouton Day, Apple Pie Day, and Fruit Cocktail Day.

I made croutons and apple pie and I opened up a can of fruit cocktail and put it in a bowl.

May 14 was Buttermilk Biscuit Day. I made Biscuits and "Gragy" from Shelf Cooking 101. Leftovers rounded it out.

It was also Dance Like a Chicken Day so one of my kids walked into my room dancing like a chicken. Have I mentioned I love my kids?

Mother's Day 2024

Jeremy asked me what I wanted for dinner for Mother's Day. I told him I didn't want to have to make decisions. I menu plan all the time. I didn't want to this time. 

Mother's Day morning I found that Jeremy and Lucky made me breakfast. Lucky made those origami hearts. Sweethearts.

Lucky had my phone during Sacrament Meeting so he could draw me this note (after the card he already made at the service activity a few days before). Sweetheart.

For dinner, Jeremy made Skillet Chicken Parmegiana, which I love, veggies on the side, and more colored flavored sugar water.

Ooh ooh, do you know what I just noticed? Skillet Chicken Parmigiana is apparently not an uncommon dish to make for Mother's Day. Jeremy made it for me in 2020. He also made it for me in 2013.

 

Jeremy and Lucky made colored flowers out of napkins for me. Sweethearts. 

I'm going to be honest. Sometimes Mother's Day is rough. I often feel inadequate even though I've been doing this parenting thing for many years. This year was fine. I think I got all my emotional-ness over with the week before. Sigh.

Celebrating Our Anniversary 2024

I told you I'd talk about our anniversary. How we celebrated it the Saturday of Screen Free Week. May 11 was National Babysitter's Day so the kids watched over Jet so Jeremy and I could get out bright and early and meet with other birders to see the Provo Delta Restoration area. Special access. Woohoo. It's supposed to open toward the end of this year so I am super excited to take our kids there when it does.

See my date shirt?

 

Oh, the birds. So many birds. Different habitats so that made more of a variety of birds. There was grassland, trees, open water. We saw sparrows, warblers, ducks. It was awesome.

If you're not a birder you may not get the excitement so let me show you some pictures of that adventure. 

 

Spotted Sandpipers

Ducklings

 

 Yellow Warbler

 

Coyote (not a bird)

 

Can you spot the killdeer eggs?

How about now?

Man, killdeer nests are hard to see. I was walking along and wouldn't have noticed except Jeremy called out that there was a nest right there on the side of the path. Good thing its not open to the public yet. There was a killdeer doing its broken wing trick trying to lead us away. But that doesn't help us to avoid the nest since they lay their eggs right among the rocks where people walk and we're not trying to actually chase after the adult. Crazy.

See this picture? We're cute. I know it. This is where the delta water meets up with the lake. See those trees back there? The trail used to continue on from where we're standing through those trees. I remember walking along there years ago. Not anymore. Instead the trail currently ends at a fence a little ways back from this spot. It's been like that for a while now since they've been working on the project. This was the first time we'd been on this side of the fence. Fun. I'm pretty sure the existing trail will connect with the trail that goes along the delta when everything is finished. Yay. 

 

After we finished with our meandering in the delta area, we drove around to see a few places then drove to a spot where we ran into a birder who had been with our group earlier. She told us that several of the birders had been to see a Northern Waterthrush, an elusive bird I had seen only once before and that happened to be two years ago while Jeremy and I were celebrating our anniversary by birding. It's a thing.

We went toward the area the birder told us and met up with other birders from that morning as well as... one of our librarian friends from Orem Library. We found out that she'd just gotten into birding a year ago so she had seen the Northern Waterthrush with the other birders. Small world. They all took off and Jeremy and I went to see the bird and got a better look than ever before... and our own pictures. Love it.

We were hungry after we finished and were trying to figure out what to eat then duh, of course we remembered Winco salads. That's our traditional date food. So we got our salads and took them home to eat and rest for a couple hours before heading out again to celebrate our anniversary without the kids... but with another birding friend.

The week before, Jeremy, Nichole, and Lucky had gone out to see a new to them bird, a sagebrush sparrow. Jeremy even got a lifer dance. 

That evening, Jeremy, our birding friend, and I went back out and got to see the sagebrush sparrow, which was a lifer for our birding friend and me. We also got good looks at some other birds. It was a successful birding evening.

We saw several kinds of sparrows. Here are somewhat good pictures of a couple more (besides the sagebrush sparrow).

Black-throated Sparrow

 

Lark sparrow

We also saw...

Juniper Titmouse

 

Gray Vireo

and several other birds.

 

Man, that was such a good day. Birding with my sweetheart. What a great way to celebrate our love.

What?

 

Catch of the Day

Me: Take a spatula around the edge of the bowl to get the Cool Whip off the sides and to even it out.

Jr., Look

It's my tongue.

Screen Free Week 2024

I did a good job again this year and scheduled posts to be published during Screen Free Week.

Now it's time to tell you what we did during Screen Free Week, May 6-12.

 

May 6 was International No Diet Day and National Beverage Day so we had chicken nuggets, fries, and root beer floats. Lucky and Jet had fun blowing bubbles in their drinks. We gave Jet water in a cup like we used. 

It was also No Homework Day but shhh, the kids didn't need to know that.

The kids did use computers for school work. It's kind of necessary nowadays. And Jeremy and I had some work stuff to do as well. But it was nice not having the TV on and no video games. Jet didn't even ask for TV all week.   

 

Jr. Jr. had his last orchestra concert. Good job, Jr. Jr.

May 8 was Have a Coke Day. We learned that any soft drink in the South is called Coke. So we all got to pick our soda pop (I picked Caffeine Free Coca Cola) and had them in our Coca Cola cups.

 

Lucky helped out with a service project with other children in the stake. They also decorated Mother's Day cards. Awwwww.

We celebrated our anniversary. On our actual anniversary we had our traditional anniversary dinner with the kids. Another day that week, Jeremy and I celebrated our anniversary with the two of us. We didn't even have to wait three months like last year. I'll tell you about the way we celebrated in a separate post.

We love each other.

 

And the random:

Who needs screens when Bluey and Bingo can go for a ride on a dinosaur?

Making faces with Daddy.

Just a duck walking down the sidewalk at the high school. I took Jr. early one day for an AP test and there it was just waddling along.

Dinos with Daddy.

It's tradition. Jeremy has his little things he does with his kids. Jet and Daddy share a big cup each using their own straw. That's their thing. 

Spontaneous dance party.

Big helper Jet. He saw me cleaning off the table so he poured water out from his water bottle then wiped it up to help.

He also helped make buns to go with Classic Meatball Subs (with homemade meatballs) and Addictive Veggie Dip. We're still getting use out of A Season of Family Meal Plans by Jordan Page.

I also took a moment one day to drive down to the river and just relax. As soon as I turned off the van, I could hear yellow warblers. There were several and it was so nice to hear them. 

Several people saw the Northern Lights Friday of that week. We didn't realize because... Screen Free Week. We tried going out Saturday night but didn't see anything. It was cloudy but had some clear spots so we did get to see some constellations since we drove out to Bridal Veil Falls then Deer Creek Reservoir. Ah, nature.

It's the Big Dipper (try clicking on the picture to make it bigger).

We explained this trip out in the middle of the night was like birding. Sometimes you go looking for a specific bird (or atmospheric condition or celestial event) and you don't see it but you enjoy the adventure.

And family history- we were able to tell the kids about the time Jeremy and I saw the Northern Lights when we were visiting my sister in Idaho (like 20 years ago).

O.K. That's all I'm going to say about Screen Free Week in this post. I'll talk about celebrating our anniversary and Mother's Day later.